Street named after Tatar poet Gabdulla Tukay to appear in Nur-Sultan

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM – A street named after prominent Tatar poet Gabdulla Tukay is set to appear in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, Kazinform correspondent reports.

It was revealed during the bilateral talks between President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov in Nur-Sultan on Monday.

The Head of State informed Rustam Minnikhanov of the decision to name one of the streets in the city after the eminent Tatar poet. He emphasized that this event will become one of the brightest symbols of cooperation between the Kazakh and Tatar people.

This year marks 135^th anniversary of Gabdulla Tuaky who was not only a poet, but also a translator, a literary critic and a public figure. He is considered the founder of the Tatar school of poetry.

Orphaned at the age of 4, Tukay grew to become one of the brightest students at the madrasah where he learnt the Tatar and Russian languages. He composed his first poem at the age of 16 and then started translating poems and fables into Tatar.

At the age of 19, he started contributing to various magazines and newspapers as well as publishing houses in the Tatar language. Few years later his health deteriorated and in 1912 he traveled all the way to the Kazakh steppes in the hopes of healing himself with kumys. Tukay returned to Kazan in early August 1912 and continued to work for a local printing house despite poor health. He passed away on April 15, 1913.